These videos need to have Arabic captions to reach a wider Muslim audience. The majority of Muslims don't understand or have a clear unbiased view point on all the different theiological debates within their religion. Everytime I try to find information about an Islamic school of thought it is some opinionated shikh telling you why they are wrong or why they are right and it is never an objective overview of the history and on how they came to believe what they believed. Thank you so much for the hard work man, although you are not a Muslim you are doing a huge favour to us Muslim in helping us understand our religion in an unbiased easy to understand manner.

just don't stop making these videos ever

This is one of the best channels I found in a while. You deserve a bigger audience.

Good video. Kalam can be better translated as more speculative theology whereas doctrinal theological creed can be considered as aqeedah. I think it is important for Muslims to understand the point that orthodoxy was only established much later in Muslim history.

This was so so interesting! As someone who has grown up in a Muslim family, I have only been exposed to heavily biased accounts of Islamic history, which heavily romanticise early Muslim community - they prefer to suggest that there was strong cohesion & strict adherence to the orthodox doctrine which my family follow today. Suggesting otherwise would damage the perfect image they paint of the sahabah in the prophet's time.

This young man’s depth and reach of knowledge is simply breathtaking which raises him to a high pedestal of accomplishment endowing him with the authority and expertise to elucidate and explain the ‘layers,’and inter-locking shades and nuances of the variegated phenomena of living Islam !

Dr. Mahmoud Ismael, an egyptian historian, mentions that one of the main characteristics of Mutazili scholars is that they did not belong to the clergy, most of them were merchants, business owners, craftsmen etc.. basically it was the upper middle class of society.. that's why during thier time it was the peak of the golden age of islam... today this phenomena is happening again with so many modern islamic thinkers who are engineers or doctors but chose to study islam. another change in islamic society is happening?

Isn't it crazy? The best teacher online that taught about Islamic doctrine (without any bias) is not even middle eastern and not even a Muslim (sources from your previous video, obviously you're free to call me out if I'm wrong, and I'm happy to change my statement), in fact, he's a white dude from a land very far north, far away from place of origin of the the Abrahamaic religion, kudos to you sir, you're the reason why I'm immersed deep in Sufism today.

Islam went in the wrong direction specially after 1258 and today we have all these wahabi,salafi orthodox preachers on social media and in backyard mosques who just teach quran and hadiths without the historical and more objective knowledge we get from people like you. Thanks for your work

Sir Your lectures are working as match sticks to my imagination. How beautiful videos with killing music! stay blessed!!!

Beautifully explained in a very concise way. But these schools and philosophies need many in depth videos.

Again, such a wonderful, enlightening series! Filip Holm, you are doing wonderful work!

This channel is absolutely superb and this video is a perfect example of why; so much complex content covered in such a short time yet with depth and clarity. I’m an unpaid student right now but once I’m working I’ll be supporting this channel as an absolute priority. Great work and thank you.

Filip your approach to the topic made me astonished yet again!!! Good work and you have my support! May God bless you✨

The was a re-emergence of the traditional Hanbali school as well.. Unfortunately. I would love to support you on Patreon but here in Sudan we don't have e-commerce and we can't use Visa or MC because of sanctions but thank you I learn new things with every video.

Your work is precious , Blessings and support from Tangier , Morocco. 🙏🥰❤☮✅

Great video!! Thank so much for sharing this information!! Very knowledgeable ♥️♥️

Your videos are very informative and unbiased. Love listening to it and started watching all your videos. Continue the good work and stay safe.

I'm Muslim and I learn so much about my own religion from you. In addition to other religions. I love all religions.

Fascinating content - thanks a lot for creating & sharing here!

The best video on this topic! Very well done!

"Men, finding no answers to the sunnan [ten thousand religious questions from the Shari-ah] now apply their own reasoning. All men seek to be enlightened. Religion is but the most ancient and honorable way in which men have striven to make sense out of God’s universe. Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness." Frank Herbert

I've been following your Video and I think its one of the BEST Islamc Teachings so far. Pls. Sheikh let's have more of these. Thanks

Salaam brother your vids are very knowledgable to watch carry on the good work khudahafiz

As a Muslim, I truly appreciate this entire video, and I hope you continue making more videos on this.

This is one of the better videos i have seen regarding the subject. Very well done. Thank you

its amazing narration and very informative without taking any stance or rather inclination. thankyou

I love the way you explain the school's of thought in Islam,which is a fact,some Muslims don't understand this and refer to the diffrent schools as sects in Islam not understanding what a sect is,Brilliant !!!kudos to you for this!

Alltså, vilken stjärna du är philip, Sånt här törstar man efter. Otroligt lärorikt, otroligt informativt, och sakligt, du gör det otroligt bra, ge mig mer 🙏🙏

Huge respect to you for this amazing content

I have said this elsewhere in one of my comments for this series that this man is worth his weight in gold. The world needed this series to cut through the smoke screen of doctrinal debates that have infested the Islamic world from the very inception of Islam itself. I have said all this in one of my essays (in Urdu) on Islam, when I discussed the position of music in Islam, and the drift in philosophical debates that occurred in the early Kalam movement. Here is something I would like to draw attention to, and perhaps Filip Holm can throw more light on it. The Kalam debate about the "createdness" of the Quran or its being co-eternal with God hides one essential truth which underlies the tug -of-war between the Mu'tazalite and Ash'arite positions. The Mu'tazalites were trying hard to create some elbow room for intellectual debate, and much of what they said was an attempt at rationalism versus blind faith. They could not deny the existence of God, so when they argued, they were striving to say things without being accused of heresy. One has to read their thoughts as spoken in silence "between the lines". My personal inclination is to see this happening with Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Biruni and even A-Razi. The latter two were Ash'arites. but in practice were closer to a free-thinking mould, than adhering to the traditionalist position. I find Ibn Khaldun"s Muqaddimah as well written in this mould. When he describes and defines how kingdoms rise and fall, he is trying (in my opinion) to show that Islam as the Perfect faith, is not so perfect after all. Of course he never said that in those words, but his intent (and indeed his motivation to write the Muqaddimah) stemmed from his desire to show the imperfect societies created in the Islamic world, as he personally saw and experienced in his own lifetime.

Keep citing your sources- they are invaluable.

A bit surprise for the shout-out, but thanks nonetheless. About the implication of concept of Quranic createdness, there are one lecture that I've listened to (I'm not sure from whom, but I think it's from an American Imam Muhammad Al-Asi) that discuss one of the main goal of the whole Mu'tazila movement; that it was developed mostly as a philosophical/theological platform for muslim to debate the doctrinal positions of many challenging religious traditions. Especially the concept of Quranic createdness was developed to debate the Christian Trinitarian doctrinal position of Jesus's status as equal with God. As within this thought, Jesus is a 'hypostasis' of God, then he is one of the fundamental essence of God. And as the Quran also mentioned Jesus ('Isa) as the "Word of God" (Kalimatullah), then the position of Trinitarian Christianis even supported by the Quran itself, that Jesus is equal and/or co-eternal to God. So, the Mu'tazila then developed the concept of Quranic createdness to combat this position, that even though he is the Word of God, he is still a creation, created in one point in time, therefore not equal with God who is the Creator. Then the Quran, which is also a word of God, therefore cannot be co-eternal with God also. In other words, the lecture concluded that the opposition of the concept of Quranic createdness, even from muslim themselves, like from Ibn Hanbal, although they thought that they was preserving the so-called "orthodox" doctrine of Islam (Quran as uncreated and co-eternal with God), they unknowingly support the argument from Trinitarian Christian that Jesus is also uncreated and co-eternal with God (as "Kalimatullah"). In short, if the Quran is created, and not co-eternal with God, then, Jesus, as the "Word of God" mentioned in the Quran, is also created, and not co-eternal with God. But if the Quran is not created, and is co-eternal with God, then, Jesus, as the "Word of God", is also not created, and not co-eternal with God. The lecture also talked about other philosophical/theological challenges posed to muslim from other religious groups and non-muslims and how Mu'tazila movement was on the forefront of this intellectual enterprise. I think this also makesense within its historical context. As the Abbasid support the translation movement, and saw a number of non-muslim intellectuals poured into their caliphate. So the official support of the Mu'tazila is among the ideological tools for the caliphate to argue for the Islamic position against non-muslims that the caliphate have interaction with. As always, thanks again for yet another very informative video. Keep up your good work!

wow this is brilliantly put together my friend. I know very very little about Islam. My parents are muslim but I myself am agnostic and do not follow the religion that closely. But recently I have become more interested in learning about it. The history. The perspectives and its diversity. I have read 3/4 books now and want to learn more about Usul Al Fiqh, the different schools and Kalam and its different schools. This video was a perfect introduction for me. If anyone has any other sources for information, maybe even books that discuss things from a comparative approach that states all the diverse thinkers and schools , it would be much appreciated. I have just picked one up regarding Legal theory so something on Theology would be great. I would prefer academic sources. But this was a great video and well put together. Thanks for the great content.

super informative Jazak Allah Khair Filip Holm.

It would be great to have a follow-up video on how these schools evolved through the medieval period.

All your videos are immensely helpful, but I’ve found this one especially helpful as I continue going deeper into Andalusī & Islamic mysticism & the lasting legacies of the former. ✌️

Im in love with this channel 😩❤️

Jazakum Allahu khairan, very informative

Thanks for sharing knowledge ! I would love to hear a convo with you and @gnostic informant !!!! Both such intellectual people!

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:48 🕌 Islamic theology is based on the concept of tawheed, the belief in one God who cannot be divided into parts. 02:01 🕌 After Prophet Muhammad's death, early Islamic communities faced diverse theological ideas and movements. 05:24 🤔 In the early Islamic period, there was no fixed orthodoxy, and a wide range of ideas and movements existed. 09:27 🧠 The Mutazilah school emphasized reason and free will, arguing that the Quranwas created. 19:42 ⚖️ Traditionalists favored a literal interpretation of the Quran and believed it was uncreated, leading to theological debates and persecution. 23:52 🕌 Different branches of Islam, like Twelver, Aisha, and Ismaili Shia, have distinct theological perspectives influenced by various sources. 24:34 🤝 The lines between Kalam (theology) and falsafa (philosophy) are often blurry, and they influenced each other in Islamic scholarship. 25:42 📜 Theological debates in Islam have continued over the centuries, and the tradition is ever-evolving. 26:10 🌟 Islamic modernism and the resurgence of Mutazilism in recent centuries have added new dimensions to Islamic theology. 26:25 🧑‍🏫 The video provides an introductory understanding of the early development of Islamic theology, leaving room for further discussion in the comments. Made with HARPA AI

Very helpful and well made video - thanks so much for this. Would love to collaborate on something in the future!

Thanks for your hard work !

Amazing work👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Brother, my hats off to you for the effort, research and quality of presentation. Wonderful! The only point I would like to make is that these theological schools of thought are not the "branches of Islam" as mentioned by you rather Stages of Learning correponding with different timelines. Islam has remained unchanged rather its the Muslims that have responded to the Message or adopted to it in different fashions. Pre-existing socioeconomic and political conditions have always dictated how a community would adopt the Message of Islam.

Excellent ONE! Thanks

Truly educational and interesting video

Fantastic video. Thanks

This video reminds me so much of the different (“rival?”) schools of thought throughout Christianity (Calvinism, Arminianism, Presuppositionalism and evidentiary apologetics, etc). This reminds me of the phrase often attributed to Confucius, “All humans are the same. It’s only habits that differ.”

I learn a great deal from these talks and vides

We need a proper elucidated series on this topic.. please And do mention sources/books in description

I never thought Ide enjoy learning Islam from a non muslim. I appreciate the objectivity in your videos and that is something many Islamic videos do not have. I just want to learn without the im right youre wrong approach and youve done just that. Thank you, from a Muslim

Excellent as always

Besides, what beautiful pictures!!🙏🦋

Absolutely brilliant! Kindly if you can please do a video on Mulla Sadra

A thing that I always say: Whenever a Non-Muslim does something, one cannot pinpoint fingers at him". See the presentator, he did such a deep research, his explanation is simple to understand. Judge if if it were a traditionalist Muslim who had to do a documentary like it, there would have been lots of lies only to justify his ego.

Thank you. You are batter than our Sheikh and mullah. Your approach is objective and unbiased. I love your honesty and knowledge for the sake of knowledge approach.

Filip, you are so good.

Btw I love your aesthetic n images :D

All Muslims also agree upon the second part of the kalima i.e. Muhammad(pbuh) is the Prophet of Allah. They also agree on there being another life. The nature of it is a point of debate. They also agree on the existence of Angels and of other Prophets. They also agree upon the Quran being from God.

Greeetings brother,very educational,interesting,informative thank you. If I may,how long does it take to research a summary collection of information as this?if I may,how is it done with texts,group inputs of relavant paths of thought?just curious as to how such knowledge is received.Thany you for your time and space,efforts🙌🙏👌

Hello brother, lately I have been watching your videos with great interest. The work you are doing is phenomenal. I have a request, can you make an entire video or series of videos dedicated to inception and rise of the hadith literature and their credibility? God bless you.

Wow . I am impressed . That is a pretty deep stuff .

Fantastic channel

Most of your statements are wrong, and there is no one who denounces the Mu'tazila as infidels because of their belief in the creation of the Qur'an alone. Rather, what Ahmad and a group of hadith scholars understood. Not all hadith scholars, but rather a group of them. What they understood is that whoever says: The Qur’an is created means that God did not know it before creating it, and that God’s knowledge is created, so they looked into it. A sign for the people of heresy, that is, a way to distinguish between them. Therefore, they disbelieved the Mu'tazilites and rejected everyone who said that the Qur'an was created. This is the reason, which is the Mu'tazilites' claim of not knowing God. The Ash'arite argument was not mentioned in response to the Mu'tazila, and it did not separate anything from the Mu'tazilites, just as most of the Mu'tazilites said that God Almighty creates. As for the good deeds and bad deeds, they are from the servant’s creation, and they denied God’s knowledge of creatures and events until after they occurred. As for their first appearance, it was in the gathering of Al-Hasan Al-Basri, the Imam of the Sunnis, where they said that the situation is between two situations, such that if a Muslim commits a major sin, he is not an infidel. Not a believer, that is, a position between two states. If he dies and does not repent, then he is an unbeliever before God. Therefore, they contradicted the words of their sheikh with this innovation of theirs, and their sheikh is Al-Hasan Al-Basri, and he is one of the greatest of the Followers, in fact the most knowledgeable of the scholars of the Followers. This was the first of their heresies, after which their heresies increased. What is strange is that you did not mention the Jahmiyah, and most of the Jahmiyah denies the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah, but most of the Mu’tazila believe in the hadith. How can a man pray and other things without the text of my hadith from the Messenger? How is zakat paid? How does he fast? How does he perform Hajj? And he performs Umrah? These are actions that God commanded us to do according to the Qur’an, and most of the Mu’tazilites revere the Qur’an. Most of them followed the doctrine of Abu Hanifa, and a few of them denied the hadith texts. The author of the video did not address this issue either. As for the issue of the predecessors being anthropomorphic, this is a lie, as the predecessors disbelieved Muqatil bin Sulaiman and the Karamiya group, and not a single word appears in the Qur’an that says that God sat on the throne. You are just a liar, and istiwaa, according to the consensus of the linguists, does not mean sitting, but rather means oppression, seizing control, and control. And one more thing. There are scholars of hadith, such as Ibn Kilab, Al-Karabisi, Abu Dawud Al-Zahiri, Al-Muhasibi, and other theologians. Al-Bukhari and Muslim were imitators of Al-Karabisi in the science of theology. You don't know anything, man, and Ahmed is the reason that prevented him from delving deeper into the science of theology is the presence of a large group of deviants among theologians, such as Judge Abd al-Jabbar, al-Ja'd ibn Dirham, and many others from the Mu'tazila, and a final issue. Caliph Al-Mu'tasim did not adopt the thought and religion of the Mu'tazilites. Rather, he adopted the creation of the Qur'an and did not adopt other issues of their beliefs. Therefore, Ahmad refrained from declaring the Caliph of the Muslims, Al-Mu'tasim, to be an infidel and named him Commander of the Faithful.

thank you. this was educational

Needs one correction. There was no confusion after death of the prophet. These fields fiqh, tasawwuf etc. were developed for understanding different aspects more effectively based on the requirements of time

Great video

Really like your video ... Very clear no time waste

A very cool video on the genesis of the Sunni Islam. 1- Could you please do the same for the genesis of Shi'i Islam. 2- Could you do a comparative study of evolution of Sunni and Shia Islam please. I know what I ask seems daunting, but now we have the technology and the knowledge to see further.

beautiful work could listen to ur work for hours u should get a podcast and do interviews with imams or other theologians like Yasir Khadi

Thank you soo much

I am late in finding your channel. Lucky me. I get to do some catching up. Could you do a video on the history of the idea of transcendence? Or, do you already have a video on transcendence?

جزاك الله خيرا

As a muslim i must say you explained very well.. normaly if you ask some muslim they Will alwyes push to theire school side and explain or quote the others with lot of suspicions and false info.. peace

Every Muslim needs to listen to this and understand how things were discussed and spread. What a great video.

Fantastic video as always... Are there any English translations of Muhammad Abduh's writings? Some quick googling seems to suggest the answer is no...

This guy has become one of my favorite Orientalist next to Karen Armstrong, you'll make a great sheikh 😄in sha Allah...May Allah guide him Amin

I do find his subject matter interesting through I am not a Muslim . I see in the comments people saying that the average muslim does not know or understand how islam evolved . Nor do they fully understand how many schools of thought and human influences that shaped it. Also I am learning a very import recurring lesson, simply to understand not what to think but howe to think, Great video .

أنت زعمت أنّ الأشاعرة فكرة مبتكرة أثبت ذلك.

Thank you!

There are certain famous statements of Ahmad ibn Hanbal that clearly demonstrate that he was not an anthropomorphist. The great Hanbali scholar ibn al-jawzi, who actually documented the Hanbali school has pointed this out. It is helpful to remember that Ahmad ibn Hanbal was trying to counteract the Mu'tazilite position that God has no attributes at all.

Hey Sir 👋 respect 👌 👏 🙌 man, a wonderful wonderful work. I wish you knew Arabic there's a great reference I would have directed you to. Anyways thanks alot.

I kind of dislike these literalists. They seemed to ruin a pretty good thing.

I just want to say that, you are a shiekh , your knowledge is truely commendable

one interesting thing is that philosphers who followed greek philosphy blindly failed to produce an accurate understanding of the universe while asha'ari kaalam actually got really close to modern science in dakik al kalam (detail of kalam usually refers to kalam that deals with science and material world) they were atomists, but their atomism went beyond the extinct greek atomism and reached the point of considering space and time discreet, forshadowing quantum mechanics

About time you do a detailed session on arguably the most inimitable and influential scholar Islam has seen and whose legacy has endured. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.

Would you consider making a video about neo-mu’atazla in the Islamic world today? I mean it seems to me like Muslims are thinking and interpreting the Quran how they see fit regardless of what school is their nation promotes so I wonder what Islam is actually like currently!

Thank you. Amazing content!

Traditionalist here in Pakistan are on a rapid decline. Half of the population is turning to rational islam(like mu'atazilla) and half are turning towards extremism. The word Ahl-al Hadith(traditionalists) is considered a curse. And is considered one of the chief reasons of the decline of Caliphate(ottomon in this case). Because when Ulema' were using tradition instead of Wisdom, scientists in italy were developing scientific methods

Kushal mehra of charvaka podcast mentioned a lot of time about the Mutazala (bear my spelling) and the debate, seriously he always satirises the literalists by saying that sentences, words, punctuation, spaces, comma, fullstop is final word of god and they will follow it :)

22:48 You said you mentioned the murji’ha, but you never actually talked about them. I watched your video again, and the groups you talked about was the mu’tazipla, hanbalism, asharism and maturidi. Who are the murji’ha?

Good intro, although it lacks Ibn Taimiah's contributions on reason and Literalism, also, his opinion on free will.

Are you a Muslim? I mean, Your deep knowledge about Islamic Theology and Kalam is amazing!

it was some impressive work, it will be really appreciable if you enlighten us on works of rumi also

thank you for talking about islamic heresies

Khalid Blankinship was my professor!

You said twelvers followed the mu'tazla school of thought on what basis did you say that? In the academic circles, it is a common knowledge that Twelvers were believers of Amr bay'n Al-Amrayn (أمر بين الأمرين) i.e. a theory between the two theories (of Mutazila and Ashaira) which is a very specific Imamiya belief regarding predestination and free will.

You are well read

Well Wasl Bin Ata's theory about oneness of intention and action led to decomposition of rational inquiry about jurisprudential subjects. This idea simply merged the concept of sin and mere mistakes. People started to afraid to tell their own decisions about religion because they terrorized by the idea that if what they say would be wrong it would lead them to hell. I think this is a quite the example of how puritan rationalism can be very oppressive even to the minds of its own followers. It uses a standard that is always getting high and becomes gradually harder to fulfil. This tension in the mind of a rationalist easily lead him or her to reflect it on others making his oppressed mind a reality on others. It is no wonder Mu'tazila tended to tyranny when they got their hands on political power, because they were being tyrant aganist their own selves and simply projected this tyranny on others as well.